St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-09-04


haven't got any idea of the amount of
fruit that is purchased by frugal people
and put up for the winter. If / should
say over 100000 worth of fruit was
required to satisfy the wants of this city
for one year, considering it's direct CON
sumption and its use in various ways, |
suppose you would foster doubt as to
my veracity. You collect statistics
upon it, though, and 1 guess you will
see that my figure is very modest.
And yet, with all the amount of fruit
consumed, DR.. Jones, the health COM
missioner, says he has not been able to
the eating OF partly spoiled fruit. True,
some persons are SO constituted that
the
EATING OF OVERRIDE
fruit may give them bowel troubles, and
the eating of unripe or partly rotten
fruit will cause cramps, collie, cholera
morbuS and various troubles of the
stomach and bowels, but there are some
people who would be similarly affected
by the eating of simply the most whole
some fruit. Cholera, the dread cpl
demic, requires a specific poison, spe-
clflc germ, so no one need be troubled
on that point.
Now any one can pass along the most
fIequented thoroughfares and notice
large quantities of unwholeSome, un-
ripe and partly decayed fruit. The safe
guard, however, against any disease
which might result from an injudicious
and indiScriminate deyouring of fruit is
common sense. The most natural in
teligence reyOlts against taking into the
mouth anything like rotten banana or
pear, although there are some unnat-
ural epicureS who do not seem satisfied
with anything not already over-ripe
and ready to rot. Another safeguard
against the consumption of unwhole-
some fruit is that to bring into the mar
ket anything liable to spoil, would hurt
the
PECUNIARY INTEREST
of the dealer and retailer. The fruit
merchant or commission man couldn't
get it off his hands, for the retailer
wouldn't buy it,. simply because he
couldn't sell tit would spoil-while in
the show window, or probably even in
the crate while ON the truck, and that
would be nothing more nor less than a
dead loss. AT least such is Dr.. Jones'
theory.
It's a curious thing, though, that in
the city health code the word fruit was
left out altogether. The leaving of rot
ten fruit upon any premises, however,
may come under the words ''any UNI
Wholesome substance or thing whatever"
i'll section SO, or the words ''er vegetable
excrementative or other substance which
is offensive, or which by process of
decomposition may become offensive"
in section 35, in the part of the ordinance
relating to nuiSanceS; and it may come
under the head vegetables r
not being healthy, fresh, sound, whole
some, pure and safe for human food"
in section 81, which prohibits the sale of
any adulterated or unwholesOme food.
The Trainer of the code seems to have
regarded fruit as of the vegetable king
dom, which, while correct for the con-
venience of the student of science and
philosophy, is quite contrary to the con-
ventional notion. If such be the case,
any owner or occupant of a building,
under section GA, in which unwhole-
some fruit is stored, or on sale, is
LIABLE TO PROSECUTION,
and fine of not more than 500, nor
less than S25.
But the health department is vested
with general authority in all matters of
city sanitary, and has the power to con-
denim any bad fruit, and any person
who refuses to obey the mandate of that
department is liable to the penalties
mentioned. Accordingly, DR.. Jones.
assisted by Meat Inspector Lamb and
his corps of assistant health inspectors,
have condemned several quantities of
fruit. A close watch is kept upon the
commission merchants, and sharp eve
upon the Italian fruit stands, and the
groceries, small stores and stands run
by more popular class of people. For
merly it was the custom to dump all
decayed fruit and vegetable matter and
other garbage at the foot of chestnut
street, where it was quite handy for the
cheap vender to go and pick up
CAST-A-wAY FRUIT,
and sell it upon the streets at s'ten cents
dozen," but the city dumping ground
became such a nuisance that it was de-
cided to remove it to about a mile below
the Mintzer farm, down the river, on
the south, or s'west," side There all
the refuse is now taken, and a mounted
sanitary policeman, Officer Conway, is
stationed there, ever on the alert to see
that every bit of garbage is dumbed into
the river. Any person who fails to dump
his load of disgusting rOttennesS into
the river, is very liable to prompt arrest
Imprisonment and punishment.
Nevertheless, despite every official
precautiOn, fruit, which is on the verge
of decay, is sold. When the dealer sees
that he has fruit on hand which is liza
BILE to get too ripe, he is anxious to sell
it, according to DR.. Jones, although he
would not criminally sell rotten fruit,
and an easy customer is found in the
Italian proprietor of small stand, or
cart, who, being proverbially a very
thrifty person, satisfied with quick
sales and small profits, leaps at the in
ducement of securing
A GOOD BARGAIN
and purchasing a big lot at low figures,
places it upon the street, and eagerly
watches every paSser-by. tits an inter
eStiflg study to watch the average Ital-
ian bargaining for heated bananas, or
half rCtton peaches and pears. and it is
equally interesting to notice the
same fruit soon afterward, nicely
displayed, and lying fright side up with
care" And the italian has not the ex-
elusive privilege of this thing. Apple
that are wOrmy, peaches and pears with
a diseased look on the under side,
punches of grapes which are only
third eatable, and bananas as black as
funeral Grape, all find their way into the
hands of the cheated consumer, but the
money eirculates, and, strange to say,
mortality keeps down and sickness is
only a harmless, passing affair.
There are two classes of frlIit-sellers
among the Italians, which should be
borne in mind. The one class is estab-
ished ia attractive little stores. the
other class satisfies itself with temporary